Servicing President Cyril Ramaphosa’s 62 cabinet ministers and their deputies is costing taxpayers R2bn over five years, with 624 officials employed as “support staff” in the various ministerial offices.
It also emerged this week that some of Ramaphosa’s ministers are violating the ministerial handbook limit on the number of support staff they are allowed to hire, with some employing as many as 17 people in their private offices at a cost more than R10m per year per ministry.
Taxpayers already pay R138m a year on the salaries of the 62 ministers and their deputies, or R690m over their full five-year term.
The details came to light this week after the DA parliamentary caucus put written questions over a six-month period to all cabinet ministers on how many people they employed in their offices.
Twenty-one out of the 27 ministers responded, saying they employed 624 support staff to service them and their deputies at a cost of R387,141,001 a year, or just over R1.9bn over five years, which is a full government term in terms of the electoral law.
The ministerial responses also revealed that all 624 ministerial support staff get paid a “PNP allowance” of R84,000 a year in lieu of overtime.
“But that one is intended to curb spending on salaries because if you were to strictly follow the labour law route, the government would have to pay a whole lot more for overtime because it’s a given that ministers work all the time, including over weekends, which requires double,” said a government official familiar with the remuneration regime.
Almost half of the 27 cabinet ministers, 12 of them, are in breach of the ministerial handbook as they employ more than 11 support staff.
The ministerial handbook Ramaphosa signed in November 2019 allows ministers to employ up to 11 people in their offices.
Ramaphosa tried to expand the support staff limit to 15 last year but withdrew the move after public outrage, and announced a review of the handbook last October.
But, six months later, neither the department of public service and administration nor the Presidency could provide an update this weekend.
Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, also declined to comment on the cost of cabinet and ministers’ noncompliance with the handbook.
Mineral resources and energy minister Gwede Mantashe and justice minister Ronald Lamola are the main culprits, each employing 17 staffers in their offices at an annual cost of R11m and R10m respectively.
Another worrying element of Ramaphosa’s handbook is the fact that it has enabled even more spending on personnel than was the case under Zuma’s administration
— DA MP Leon Schreiber
Next is human settlements minister Mmamoloko Kubayi with 15 staffers, costing R10m a year, followed by international relations minister Naledi Pandor, higher education minister Blade Nzimande and police minister Bheki Cele, who all employ 14 people in their offices at just under R9m a year.
The support staff employed by ministers include special advisers, chiefs of staff, receptionists, “private” secretaries, domestic workers, community outreach officers and “driver messengers”.
Ramaphosa’s deputy ministers also have free rein, with at least 17 of them disregarding the stipulations of the ministerial handbook, which cap their support staff at seven.
The two international relations deputy ministers, Candith Mashego-Dlamini and Alvin Botes, each employ 10 people at a cost of just under R12m a year.
Mantashe’s deputy, Nobuhle Nkabane, is aided by eight people at a cost of R3.5m a year.
Seventeen staff members for the two deputy ministers of trade, industry and competition, Fikile Majola and Nomalungelo Gina, cost the taxpayer R10.2m annually.
Minister in the Presidency Mondli Gungubele has an 11-member staff complement, while two deputies, Pinky Kekana and Thembi Siweya, have 19 people at a cost of R8.3m a year.
Leon Schreiber, the DA MP serving in parliament’s public service portfolio committee, said his party would soon introduce a “cut cabinet perks bill” which would seek to amend the Remuneration of Public Office Bearers Act by introducing strict limits on ministers’ benefits.
Schreiber said it was shocking that Ramaphosa had allowed more spending on ministerial support staff than Jacob Zuma.
The former president’s ministerial handbook allowed ministers to employ 10 people in their offices and six for deputy ministers, but it’s unclear if the limitation was strictly adhered to.
“Another worrying element of Ramaphosa’s handbook is the fact that it has enabled even more spending on personnel than was the case under Zuma’s administration.
"While Zuma had more ministers than Ramaphosa [34 vs 27], Ramaphosa allows ministers and deputy ministers to have more staff than Zuma did. Ramaphosa has the same number of deputy ministers in his cabinet as Zuma had [35],” said Schreiber.
“Under the previous version of the handbook, which was in force during Zuma’s tenure from February 7 2007 until November 20 2019, ministers were allowed to have 10 support staff, while each deputy minister was entitled to six. Under Ramaphosa, those numbers were increased to 11 and seven.
“On balance, this increase means that Ramaphosa’s cabinet costs taxpayers more than Zuma’s ever did.”
Schreiber added he would be filing a complaint with the public protector against all ministers and deputy ministers violating the ministerial handbook.
Mantashe’s office on Saturday insisted his ministerial staff appointments were “in line with the applicable ministerial handbook”.
Lamola, through spokesperson Chrispin Phiri, also defended his ministerial staff complement, citing the handbook that was in place in June 2019 even though a new one was signed by the president in November that year.
“The handbook provides for a total of 15 posts. However, the handbook also makes provision for ministers and MECs who are responsible for more than one department to create a post of portfolio co-ordinator,” said Phiri.
He said Lamola was responsible for three departments — justice, correctional services and the office of the chief justice. “In appointing personnel to his private office, the minister has invoked the provision in relation to the portfolio co-ordinator, which brings the total personnel to 16 as permitted by the handbook.”
Phiri added that “upon further verification of our response to parliament”, they had found an error — “an official who has been seconded to the ministry but who is in the employ of the department is counted among the officials appointed by the minister as at June 6 2019”.
Lunga Ngqengelele, spokesperson for Pandor, said yesterday: “Minister Pandor has 11 staff seconded by [the department] and three contract staff employed on the ministry budget. The confusion is caused by the fact that we provided the total number of staff in the office of the minister without specifying who is on contract linked to the minister and/or a civil servant.”
Other ministries had not responded to requests for comment at the time of going to publication.
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